False memories refer to memories of events that did not occur. The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm represents a conventional experimental methodology for examining false memories; this paradigm involves the presentation of associated words (bed, rest, etc.), which induce a false recall and/or false recognition of a non-presented word (critical lure; sleep). Many studies using the DRM paradigm have demonstrated that (a) participants exhibit false memories robustly and (b) they experience these memories in a vivid and detailed manner. First, this article theoretically reviews the mechanisms that robustly produce false memories. Subsequently, accounts on subjective experience of false memories are discussed. Based on the review, this paper finds discrepancies among the accounts with regard to whether the activation of critical lure causes false memories and their subjective experience; some studies show that the activation of critical lure mediates false memories, while others show that the activation does not result in false memories. The review concludes that none of the existing accounts sufficiently resolve this discrepancy, suggesting that this issue needs to be investigated by future studies.